A MODEL OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE.
Judges 4:1-7.
JUDGES 4:1-2. At the very outset of this short passage we discover that war MIGHT come against the LORD’s people as a direct result of their sin. This simple fact is echoed throughout the book of Judges: “And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD… And the LORD sold them into the hand of…”
This is not to say that every affliction that a person may suffer is a direct consequence of some specific sin (cf. John 9:2-3). Nor do some people die because they are worse sinners than others (cf. Luke 13:1-4).
However, SOMETIMES our sufferings do arise from our sins. One person who was healed by Jesus was told afterwards, ‘Behold thou art made whole: go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee’ (cf. John 5:14).
JUDGES 4:2. In the background of the narrative of this chapter stands a Canaanite king called Jabin, king of Hazor. Many years before, another ‘Jabin, king of Hazor’ had raised up a confederacy against Israel, and had been thoroughly defeated (cf. Joshua 11:1-6). Now a new “Jabin, king of Hazor” sent his captain Sisera to oppress Israel.
“Jabin” may have been a common royal name, like ‘Henry’ in England, ‘James’ in Scotland, or ‘George’ in Great Britain. Or perhaps it was a generic name for a king, like ‘Pharaoh.’ But to the people of Deborah’s day, it might have seemed that they were fighting an old foe all over again.
This is significant in our spiritual warfare. Malignant foes who we thought had long since been defeated rear their ugly heads once more. The beast that was mortally wounded yet lives (cf. Revelation 13:3)!
JUDGES 4:3. This is the pattern throughout Judges: the children of Israel sinned; the LORD sold them int the hand of an oppressor; and now (after twenty years) they “cried unto the LORD.” The Bronze Age was giving way to the Iron Age: and Sisera, the captain of the host, oppressed the children of Israel with the latest technology. “Nine hundred chariots of iron!”
JUDGES 4:4-5. “And Deborah, a prophetess… judged Israel at that time.” Deborah’s centre of operations was about 75 miles south of Hazor. She was well enough respected, not only locally, but nationally, and “the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.”
JUDGES 4:6. Deborah was a woman of action, and a woman of authority. She sent to Naphtali and summoned Barak. (Hazor was in the territory of Naphtali.)
Speaking as a prophetess, Deborah gave Barak a directive from the LORD. Barak was to raise an army of ten thousand men from two of the northern tribes of Israel most affected by the oppression, and to “DRAW toward mount Tabor.”
JUDGES 4:7. Meantime the LORD would “DRAW unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army.” The same LORD who was calling Barak to DRAW into position on the higher ground of mount Tabor, was also DRAWING Sisera, “with his chariots and his multitude” to their defeat in the soft and miry soil around the river.
And so it is with our spiritual warfare. The LORD sets the scene at every stage, and uses what actors He will to accomplish His purposes. All this is so that the praise does not go to people, but to the LORD.
To speak of ‘our’ spiritual warfare is possibly a misnomer. After all, ‘the battle is not yours, but God’s’ (cf. 2 Chronicles 20:15). So, as we ‘put on the whole armour of God’ (cf. Ephesians 6:11) and enter the fray, we do so in the assurance that the war is already won.
The war was won when Jesus took upon Himself the sins of His people, and paid the price of our sin on the cross of Calvary. By this act we were ‘delivered from the power of darkness,’ and ‘translated’ into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (cf. Colossians 1:13). Hereafter, in our own warfare against ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil,’ we are already assured of the victory: for ‘we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us’ (cf. Romans 8:37).
